This is the Night
by EndlessMemories
Summary: No buts! She burst out, Who cares what other people think, what they may say? I love you, isn't that enough? It was that night when all their tomorrows began...oneshot pre HBP


**Disclaimer: The following information you are about to read isn't mine,and parts of this is from the song, This is the Night... I'm just having fun with my writing, and itnever happened in the Harry Potter universe. lol :D**

This is the night. She can feel it. She just knows. She's supposed to meet him in the Astronomy tower in five minutes. She hopes she's ready for this. No. She knows she is…it's just him that needs convincing. Him. He looked troubled today, and suddenly she's afraid of what he has to say. She takes a deep breath and slowly begins to make her way across the castle. After what seems like mere seconds, she finds herself at the bottom of the spiral staircase. The staircase that will lead her to a different tomorrow.

She enters through the wooden doors and sees him leaning against the rampart wall, staring out at the black, midnight sky. She closes the door behind her softly and he turns around to look at her.

"Hi." She says quietly, smiling at him.

"Hi." He murmurs back, not taking his eyes off of her.

She looks away from his piercing eyes and says, "So, you er, wanted to talk to me?"

He sighs and turns back to the wall. "I don't know what to do."

Her brow furrows and she takes a few steps closer to him. "It's not about knowing what to do; it's about doing what you feel. So… what do you feel?"

He turns to look at her, sadness welling up in eyes and says those painful words. "I don't… I really want to, but I just don't feel anything right now. I'm like an empty shell." He looks down at his shoes, unable to face her and whispers, "I'm so sorry."

She looks at him, knowing that he hates to tell her this, but it's the truth, and for that, she's thankful. Thankful that he'll still tell her the truth, no matter how much it may hurt. She looks away quickly to regain her strength. She needs it now more than ever, for both of them. She looks back and he's still facing away from her. Slowly, she lifts his head up and turns his face to look at her. If they weren't so strong by now, if they hadn't been through so much already; they'd both be crying.

"Don't apologize. You can't help the way you feel, and if I can't accept that, then I don't deserve you."

"Don't say that…" He pleaded, looking back into her eyes. She let go of him and looked down at her hands.

"Maybe I just- I just lost touch with myself. Please forgive me; I never wanted to hurt you. I think- I think I'm more afraid than anything else…Will you wait for me?"

Hope shone in her eyes as she whispered, "I'd do anything, I'd wait forever to be yours, I'd follow you to the ends of the earth and I'll fight by your side, but...our world is upside down, we may not have that much time left."

"Well I won't be forever, but…" He trailed off, looking back towards the sky.

"I'm afraid to." She whispered, following his gaze across the stars.

He turned and looked at her with wonder and said, "What could you possibly be afraid of?"

She slowly shook her head no and said, "You first."

He sighed and walked to the edge of the astronomy tower and gazed back out at the clear, night sky. She walked over to join him, her heart longing for what may never happen. After a few moments he says, "I'm afraid of losing you." He turns to look at her and continued, "I'm afraid that I might mess this up, that it won't work out. I'm afraid of hurting you, Mione- I'm afraid of the end."

"Is that why you won't start a relationship?"

He nodded his head yes and said, "You're turn."

She took a deep breath and sighed saying, "I'm afraid of a lot of things. I'm afraid to love you, afraid that the moments we shared mean the world to me, and nothing to you. I'm afraid that I'm not good enough, and I'm afraid that you'll never feel the same way about me."

Tears shone in his eyes for the first time as he pulled her into a hug and he whispered, "Oh, Mione." into her ear.

"Please," She said, leaning back to look at him. "don't be afraid of the end. It's not about how it ends, but how we get there that matters. The only way you can mess this up is to break it off. I know we can work this out, it can't be the end it it's only just begun, but the only way for this to ever work is for you to have feelings for me too."

"Hermione, I DO have feelings for you, I- I just tend to burry my feelings, so I don't get hurt, but then I don't feel many good things either. We can make this work; I want to make this work."

"So do I."

"Well, what do you want from this? Where do I go from here, where do we go from here?"

She sighed and looked to up at the stars again, gathering her thoughts. "I want a future. I want to be able to actually be your girlfriend. I don't want to have to pretend anymore that there is nothing going on between us."

He looks down at the ground again, ashamed of what his response will be, but he knows that he has to tell her the truth, "I know you want to be able to show people your feelings, you're that kind of person. The kind of person who can't keep what they're feeling inside of them, and I love that about you Hermione, but… I'm just not ready. I don't want "us" to become some kind of publicity thing. I just want to be with you, without people making a big deal out of this."

"We can't keep this between each other forever, Ron. You are the answer to all my dreams, and you're as close as a touch a way, so why are we still holding back what we want to say? People are going to find out and it's better if we just come out with it before the rumors get worse."

"There are rumors?"

"Yes, Ron. There are rumors, many people think we already are going out, I mean... we are… but then… we're not. I don't know what to say to them, but overtime whatever we have now will grow to be so much more and then it won't matter how it started, or what people said; all that matters is that we care about each other."

"I know, Hermione, but…"

"-No buts! Who cares what other people think, what they may say? I love you, isn't that enough!"

Hermione covered her mouth with her hand as she looked up at Ron, scared of his reaction to her outburst. He looked down, his ears turning red and mumbled, "You're right Hermione, I'm caring too much about what everyone else may say, I'm sorry, but I can't help it… after what's happened to Harry … I just don't want something like that to happen again. I guess I'm trying to protect you in my own way, see…I love you too."

A smile spread across Hermione's face as he said those three words she had been dying to here, been dying to say... They held each other for a while until Hermione turned her head to speak quietly in his ear saying, "I don't need to be protected from everyone, I'm strong enough for that. I've endured it before; we've all been through it before. Please Ron, let us be together."

He loosened his hold on her and leaned back so they could look at each other. "Hermione, there is nothing I could want more at this moment."

There were many other sentiments exchanged that night as they enjoyed one another's' company, but the main thing was that they were together, and they were in love. And with thought that they left the astronomy tower, together. They went down to breakfast the next morning, holding hands, together. And they knew that for the rest of their lives they would be together. After all, who cared what anyone else thought or said? They loved each other. And that was all that mattered, it was enough; for everything.

That was the night. The night where they captured forever, and all their tomorrows began. After that night they would never be lonely again. It was that night.


End file.
